Mark Duggan’s mum wins right to appeal inquest verdict

Pamela Duggan, the mother of police shooting victim Mark, whose death sparked rioting across the country in 2011, has won the right to appeal against the inquest jury’s verdict.

A judge in the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court said in his ruling that it is “arguable” that the jury’s verdict of lawful killing may not stand due to directions given to them by the coroner.

Mr Justice Mitting has allowed Mrs Duggan “limited” permission to apply for a judicial review of the inquest verdict as the jury’s instruction from coroner Judge Keith Cutler about how to arrive at a lawful killing conclusion “was arguably inadequate in two respects”. Two further points argued by Mrs Duggan were rejected by Mr Justice Mitting.

The argument set down by Mrs Duggan’s legal team seems to suggest that jurors following the coroner’s direction could have harboured doubts over whether police marksman V53’s actions were reasonable, yet still have concluded the killing was lawful.